TECHNICAL LIBRARY

Featuring more than 1,000 searchable technical papers, business features, country commentaries and fashion articles from editions of World Leather going back to 2002. The papers are categorised into nine topics to make the library easy to navigate.

Peltec X-Zyme SLR – sludge and lime reductionIn this article, the company describes an innovative approach to a lime-free
opening up system. The product consists of a disruptive technology that has
been thoroughly tested worldwide prior to this publication. The implementation
in production was found to be easy and resulted in leather of very high quality.
The sustainability benefits, which were proven in various production trials around
the world, resulted in considerable interest for this innovative technology.

Greenfinish* the new ecological frontier from Gemata for leather finishingSustainability is undoubtedly a challenge but can also be seen as an opportunity.
Environmental needs and the international context require a new approach in the production
chain. Tanning technology developer Gemata is attempting to stay one step ahead in green
technologies for leather finishing, with the launch of its new release paper finishing line.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2019

The dynamics of leather combustionLeather is a combustible material and must be treated with appropriate flameretardant
products to pass fire-prevention testing. This is part one of a twopart
article on this subject from Ikem. With more than 40 years’ experience of
offering beamhouse, tanning, retanning and finishing products to the global
leather industry, Ikem became part of the GSC group at the start of 2019.

World Leather - Oct/Nov 2019

Driving leather innovationOn a recent visit to its main production site at Dongen in the Netherlands,
World Leather had the opportunity to look behind the scenes at Ecco Leather
and see why the company is a driving force of leather innovation.

World Leather - Aug/Sept 2019

Sustainable sourcing of tanninsIn this article, Italian chemicals manufacturer Silvateam offers more details
about how it sources sustainable tannins, and its use of quebracho from
Argentina and of tara from Peru. In the previous issue of World Leather, it
focussed on its sourcing of chestnut tannins from Italy.

World Leather - Jun/July 2019

Hides go to wasteDemand for high-quality leather remains strong, but no one in the global
industry can be in any doubt that lower-value material is harder to sell
than at any time in living memory. As a result, what we thought would
never happen has come to pass: hides really are going to waste.

Tannins: a sustainable solutionIn the first of two articles, Italian chemicals manufacturer Silvateam offers insight
into sources of sustainable tannins from areas of Italy and South America. The
second article will contain information about its use of quebracho from Argentina
and tara from Peru. This paper focuses on its efforts to source chestnut tannins
from Italy in a manner that respects the environment while also supporting the
economic growth of local rural areas.

World Leather - Apr/May 2019

Mercier Turner augments its Newsplit machineSince World Leather last published information about the Newsplit splitting machine from
French tanning machinery provider Mercier Turner in 2015, the company has continued to
make progress on a seven-year project to refine and improve lime-splitting capabilities.

World Leather - Feb/Mar 2019

LIFE Biopol project moves out of the laboratoryDuring the 2019 India International Leather Fair (IILF) in Chennai, World Leather
sat down with commercial director wet end for Smit & zoon, Arnaud Backbier,
to discuss the LIFE Biopol project that the company has been involved with
through Codyeco, the Italian leather chemicals producer it acquired in 2017.

World Leather - Feb/Mar 2019

Elimination of wastewaters from liming/unhairing and chrome tanning in wet blue manufactureThis paper concerns a radical new approach to the unhairing/liming and chrome tanning
processes for wet salted bovine hides. The technology - developed by BIOSK Chemicals,
China - was presented at the 11th Asian International Conference of Leather Science and
Technology (2018), Xi’an.
These techniques, as used by four major tanneries in China, are described in detail where
major savings in chemicals and water are being made. In addition, major environmental
issues arising from traditional methods of leather making are being avoided.

Generating consistent leather splits for footwearTanning technology provider Gemata has said the Starsplit splitting machine it
developed and introduced to the market in 2017 can bring about a revolution in
the lime-splitting process. This could be very good news for tanners but equally
so for the large number of footwear brands interested in using leather splits in the
shoes they are preparing for the coming seasons.

Boron in hide and skin curing processesWith the prevalence of tannery effluent being used for irrigation, tanners need to be aware of the specific monitoring requirements pertaining to soil and water sources as this article about boron illustrates.

Developments in fatliquoringAt February’s IULTCS Congress in Chennai, Dirick von Behr, technical manager for leather at chemicals
manufacturer Smit & zoon, presented a paper entitled “Method for determining the optimised exhaustion of
fatliquors to minimise the ETP-inflow”. The paper referenced the upcoming changes in German regulations
for the treatment of tannery wastewater. World Leather sat down with Mr von Behr to find out more.

World Leather - Apr/May 2017

Tackling “veininess”, Part twoThe second and final part of a paper from Lanxess examining the best strategy for addressing the problem
of veininess in hides. The first part appeared in World Leather December 2016-January 2017.

greenLIFE 1: Oxidative limingIn 2014, two of the biggest tanners in the Arzignano cluster, Gruppo Dani and Gruppo Mastrotto, formally launched a
joint project called Green Leather Industry for the Environment (greenLIFE), on which they have worked with three
technical partners: chemical supplier Ikem, biotechnology firm Ilsa and the cluster’s wastewater treatment service provider,
Acque del Chiampo. It has the aim of promoting sustainability in the tanning industry. Half of the funding for greenLIFE
came from the European Union, which has asked the project partners to share their findings with the wider leather
industry. The partners have picked World Leather as the ideal platform on which to publish the results of greenLIFE. This
paper, the first of six World Leather will publish in the course of 2017, kicks the series off.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2016

Improving the biodegradability of vegetable tanned leatherTanning stabilises protein, thus making leathers more
difficult to biodegrade than raw hides and skins, composting offers a solution
to waste disposal problems associated with these leather
products. In this event this offers a strong alternative to land-fill
disposal or incineration of waste.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2016

ReVeal – the Dutch veal and calfskin industry opens its doorsLeather chemicals manufacturer Stahl hosted a one-day event called ReVeal last November.
The aim was to give finished product brands up-to-date information about transparency
and traceability in the leather supply chain, with the focus firmly on Dutch calf leather.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2016

Chamois leather process based on rubber seed oil, and rationalisation of the oxidation stageChamois leather has unique uses, including high quality gasoline filtration, gloves, garments, and cleaning and drying of
optical equipment, spectacles, windows, vehicle, jewellery, and silverware.
Indonesia is a rubber producing country with the largest rubber plantations in the world. Here, it produces rubber seeds
from about 1,500 kg/hectare of land, and this resource has not been utilised optimally. It was considered that rubber seed
oil could be used for chamois leather tanning, and an investigation took place to see if:
[1] rubber seed oil could be used as chamois leather tanning agent
[2] the time consuming oxidation stage could be rationalised.

The influence of syntans on the assembly of collagenSince the introduction of the first syntan one hundred years
ago by BASF, the role of syntans in the tanning process has
changed significantly. While syntans were initially used as
dispersers and accelerators for vegetable tannins, they were
applied as sole tanning agents later, and with the wide
acceptance of chromium or glutaraldehyde tanning, they are
now mainly used in the re-tanning process.

World Leather - Apr/May 2016

Studies on the determination of soiling and cleaning behaviour of leather. Part 1: Inter-laboratory test on soiling and cleaning behaviour of leatherA main task of the VGCT Commission “Leather Testing and Assessment” is the detailed examination for the
determination of physical and colour fastness properties of leather, especially in terms of procedures. The intention
is to detect performance characteristics of the procedures and to reveal and eliminate possible sources of error.
Due to the trend for light-coloured leather for upholstery in the automotive and furniture sector, the soiling and
cleaning behaviour of leather and its determination gain in importance.
From the multiplicity of available test procedures for the characterisation of soiling and cleaning behaviour, the
procedure VDA 230-212 was chosen and considered closely by means of an inter-laboratory test programme. In
the context each procedural step was examined closely with regard to their impact on the final result of the test.
Part 1 presents the results of the inter-laboratory test on soiling and cleaning behaviour of leather.
Part 2 (to be published in World Leather later in 2016) will deal with the validation of
an optimised mechanical cleaning step.

SLTC 117th Annual Conference / The Mary RoseThe 118th Annual Conference of the SLTC was held at The University of Northampton 25th April 2015. The event was attended by 79 delegates, and was followed in the evening by the SLTC Annual Dinner Dance.

Sustainable tanning: waste minimisation in the tanneryOver the last few years the chemical industry has introduced many new technical solutions to the leather industry. Most offer environmental advantage or reduced risk of harm, and these advances are set to continue. In particular, novel enzymatic beamhouse systems and new wet white technologies are two major wet-end process steps where developments have been focused. Advances in these areas will lead to more sustainable leather articles and process conditions with a lower environmental impact.

Flame resistant leathers for the aviation industryClariant: There is a demand for flame retardancy, and a new approach based on EasyWhite Tan achieves these critical specifications as well as meeting the need for secure and environmentally friendlier ingredients and processes.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2013

Somalia: The Berbera TanneryThe region that today encompasses Somaliland was home
to the earliest civilization in the region. The most salient
feature of this ancient civilization is thought to be the
Laas Geel Neolithic cave paintings, which are among the oldest
such rock art in Africa. These cave paintings are located in a site
outside Hargeisa, the capital of the Somaliland region, and were
untouched and intact for nearly 5-10,000 years until their
recent rediscovery at the end of 2002.

X-Zyme – a novel beamhouse technologyIn a partnership for the tanning industry, Novozymes and Lanxess are combining patented biotechnology with chemical and global processing know-how. The two companies are introducing a novel beamhouse process that delivers high-quality pelts and significantly improved effluents.

Tannery machinery accessories and spare parts from ItalyProviding the many
leather producers
clustered in the
leather centres of Italy with
a just-in-time specialist
service, spares and an array
of auxiliary devices has
created a huge marketing
opportunity for the small
but technically qualified
enterprise.

Innovation Part 1: Recycling and regenerationTwenty world standard tanneries have opened their doors for in-depth study as part of Tannery of the Year Awards 2009 and 2011. Considerable technical information has been published in World Leather following these visits, and there has been an emphasis on environmental aspects. This article is the first in a series that picks out some of the highlights from the innovation stories these top tanneries have shared with us.

World Leather - Oct/Nov 2011

Deep shelf/slow speed processing vesselsDrums fitted with deep shelves and rotating at relatively
slow speeds for wet processing hides into leather were
first brought into use in the mid-1990s. Since that time
the technology has evolved, and they are now being used for
soaking, liming, tanning and retanning/dyeing.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2010

Small moulds can cause big problemsAsignificant cause of loss in value in leather processing
is due to fungal or bacterial growth, and even biocidal
agents fail in certain cases. These small
microorganisms are not visible to the naked eye, and are
normally only identified when the defect reaches a certain
level.

World Leather - Aug/Sep 2010

The mechanisms of effective soaking: Fresh and brine-cured hidesThe soaking of fresh cattle hides differs from the soaking of salted or brine-cured cattle hides. This paper reveals the differences between these two types of raw material, including the relationship between hyaluronic acid extraction from the hide into the float and effective soaking, and other related issues.

World Leather - Feb/Mar 2010

Carbon dioxide deliming of full thickness hidesIn World Leather May 2007, a list was given of 45 papers that had been published which addressed various aspects of salinity that arise from leather manufacture. To make the compendium as complete as possible, some papers that were still awaiting publication were also included.
This was an unusual step but, with consideration to the growing environmental pressures that tanners are facing, and to make the compendium comprehensive, it was considered right to include this material.
The following is one of the papers that was awaiting publication, and concerns the use of carbon dioxide as a proven method of reducing the total dissolved solids (TDS) content of wastewaters.
CSIRO was at the forefront in the investigation of this technology and its introduction into commercial use. When reading this paper, it should be remembered that the original report was produced in the early 1990s and, as it has only been subject to a very light edit, some minor details will have now changed. The information set down is, however, fundamental to the highly successful technology and this is probably the most informative study written on this subject.

World Leather - 01 - Feb/Mar 2008

The soaking, unhairing and liming process – Part 3 of 3: Managing the process formulationIn Parts 1 and 2 of this three-part series, detailed guidelines for the successful soaking and unhairing/liming of bovine hides were presented, but there is a problem in practical manufacture. Not only are these initial steps in leather-making the foundation of good quality leather, but the appearance of hides and skins after unhairing and liming is difficult to relate with the final leather.

Technologies to improve the useful area of leatherThe manufacturing of leather is facing diverse challenges including pressure from the eco-toxicity point of view, in the form of stringent new regulations. The measures necessary to deal with these issues add to the cost pressure that tanners are experiencing.

World Leather - Aug/Sep 2006

Back to Basics: Modifying the skin structure & Hides and skins and mechanical forcesEssay 1: Before first-time drying and the formation of a flat stable substrate, the conversion of hides and skins into leather can be viewed as two distinct stages: the removal of unwanted skin components and the location of specific materials within the collagen structure. Essay 2: The role of the process vessel in leather manufacture is greater than that of a chemical reactor. While chemical reactions take place, considerable forces are applied to the goods undergoing process. The way these forces are received, and the outcome, strongly affects the chemical distribution within each hide or skin.

World Leather - Nov 2005

Optimum chrome tanning of hides and modified Thrublu process for lime-split hidesChrome tanning for a long time enjoyed a unique position amongst tanners and almost 90% of leather produced is chrome tanned. A number of studies have been published suggesting that Chromium(III) itself may be toxic at higher levels and Chromium(VI) is a known carcinogen. So, tanners have to consider how best to modify their tanning process for better exhaustion of chrome and look for alternative means to minimise the impact of tanning on the environment.

Removing phospholipids from hides: Looking back on a “New perspective on wet processing”The paper "New perspective on wet processing" was published in World Leather October/November 1993, in which the advantages offered by the removal of phospholipids were discussed. Given that the value of raw hides and leather selling prices - strongly influenced by area and quality - are so important to the tanner, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate this technology.

Hides and skins: Physical change and effects within chemical processingThe forces applied to skins in wet chemical processing relate to the type of processing vessel and its internal configuration. These forces can be viewed as constant when processing at uniform loadings, float levels, speed of
rotation and time. We take a look how the way these forces act will vary as the skin physically changes.

World Leather - Aug/Sep 2005

A practical alternative to salt for the preservation of hides and skinsSalt as a preservative for hides and skins is simple in application, low in cost and effective.
Accordingly it is the most common form of preservation, but in practical term salt cannot be removed
within effluent treatment. It enters the environment where the true costs are experienced in reality.

World Leather - May 2005

The role of bound and free water in the liming processIn World Leather August/September 2004, observations were presented showing
that if limed hides were washed at different temperatures, a warmer wash caused
an increase in softness and hide relaxation, but without change in the total water
content. References were made to earlier investigations that address aspects that need taking into account. Translations and detailed studies of these reports are summarised in the following paper.

World Leather - Dec/Jan 2004

Bating: gaining area while retaining cutting valuesIt is almost 100 years since Otto Röhm introduced the first
industrial application of an enzymatic product. This was the
bating process of animal hides within leather production, the
enzymes being derived from pancreatic glands. This can be seen

Wasserglass in leather productionThe main objective of this project—funded by the CRAFT
programme of the EC(2)—was to develop findings from a
previous investigation on the application of Wasserglass.
In the study, procedures for pelt treatment with Wasserglass(3)

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